Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 | Page 9

self-induced
sexual excitement, with orgasm, may occur. Indeed, from an early age sexual differences
pervade the whole nervous tissue. I may here quote the remarks of an experienced
gynecologist: "I venture to think," Braxton Hicks said many years ago, "that those who
have much attended to children will agree with me in saying that, almost from the cradle,
a difference can be seen in manner, habits of mind, and in illness, requiring variations in
their treatment. The change is certainly hastened and intensified at the time of puberty;
but there is, even to an average observer, a clear difference between the sexes from early
infancy, gradually becoming more marked up to puberty. That sexual feelings exist [it
would be better to say 'may exist'] from earliest infancy is well known, and therefore this
function does not depend upon puberty, though intensified by it. Hence, may we not
conclude that the progress toward development is not so abrupt as has been generally
supposed?... The changes of puberty are all of them dependent on the primordial force
which, gradually gathering in power, culminates in the perfection both of form and of the
sexual system, primary and secondary."
There appear to have been but few systematic observations on the persistence of the
sexual impulse in women after the menopause. It is regarded as a fairly frequent
phenomenon by Kisch, and also by Löwenfeld (Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, p. 29). In
America, Bloom (as quoted in Medical Standard, 1896), from an investigation of four
hundred cases, found that in some cases the sexual impulse persisted to a very advanced
age, and mentions a case of a woman of 70, twenty years past the menopause, who had
been long a widow, but had recently married, and who declared that both desire and
gratification were as great, if not greater, than before the menopause.
Reference may finally be made to those cases in which the sexual impulse has developed
notwithstanding the absence, verified or probable, of any sexual glands at all. In such
cases sexual desire and sexual gratification are sometimes even stronger than normal.
Colman has reported a case in which neither ovaries nor uterus could be detected, and the
vagina was too small for coitus, but pleasurable intercourse took place by the rectum and
sexual desire was at times so strong as to amount almost to nymphomania. Clara Barrus
has reported the case of a woman in whom there was congenital absence of uterus and
ovaries, as proved subsequently by autopsy, but the sexual impulse was very strong and
she had had illicit intercourse with a lover. She suffered from recurrent mania, and then
masturbated shamelessly; when sane she was attractively feminine. Macnaughton-Jones
describes the case of a woman of 32 with normal sexual feelings and fully developed
breasts, clitoris, and labia, but no vagina or internal genitalia could be detected even
under the most thorough examination. In a case of Bridgman's, again, the womb and
ovaries were absent, and the vagina small, but coitus was not painful, and the voluptuous
sensations were complete and sexual passion was strong. In a case of Cotterill's, the
ovaries and uterus were of minute size and functionless, and the vagina was absent, but
the sexual feelings were normal, and the clitoris preserved its usual sensibility. Mundé
had recorded two similar cases, of which he presents photographs. In all these cases not
only was the sexual impulse present in full degree, but the subjects were feminine in
disposition and of normal womanly conformation; in most cases the external sexual
organs were properly developed.[15]
Féré (_L'Instinct sexuel_, p. 241) has sought to explain away some of these phenomena,
in so far as they may be brought against the theory that the secretions and excretions of

the sexual glands are the sole source of the sexual impulse. The persistence of sexual
feelings after castration may be due, he argues, to the presence of the nerves in the
cicatrices, just as the amputated have the illusion that the missing limb is still there.
Exactly the same explanation has since been put forward by Moll, Medizinische Klinik,
1905, Nrs. 12 and 13. In the same way the presence of sexual feelings after the
menopause may be due to similar irritation determined by degeneration during involution
of the glands. The precocious appearance of the sexual impulse in childhood he would
explain as due to an anomaly of development in the sexual organs. Féré makes no attempt
to explain the presence of the sexual impulse in the congenital absence of the sexual
glands; here, however, Mundé intervenes with the suggestion that it is possible that in
most cases "an infinitesimal trace of ovary" may exist, and preserve femininity, though
insufficient to produce ovulation or menstruation.
It is proper to mention these ingenious arguments. They are, however,